Life, 1921-02-24 · page 4 of 32
Life — February 24, 1921 — page 4: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The page contains two distinct sections: **Left column ("What Are We Going to Do About It?"):** A serious editorial criticizing government neglect of disabled WWI veterans. It documents approximately 20,000 ex-servicemen in poor conditions across almshouses and hospitals, receiving only $3 daily while private contractors profit. Congress is criticized for inadequate hospital provisions. **Right column:** A poem celebrating *Life* magazine's 2000th issue (coming March 3rd). **Bottom cartoon:** Shows two men discussing construction costs. The "homeowner" questions why an igloo costs more than the one he built, while the "builder" blames an ice shortage—a humorous non-sequitur about material scarcity affecting prices. This appears unrelated to the serious veteran content above.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
What Are We Going to Do About It? HEY tell us that in this great country public opinion rules, . And what makes public opinion? Facts. Do you know the facts about our disabled soldiers? Do you know that of the twenty thousand ex-service men now getting hospital care from the government nearly half are in county almshouses, state insane asylums, jails, contract hospi- tals, where the government pays three dollars a day for a bed and the management makes a profit of a dollar or two on every patient every day, in ramshackle, unsanitary and improvised buildings totally unfit for the purpose? Do ) ou know that the number of broken war veterans in need of hospital treatment is increasing nearly two thousand every month and that the situation is getting desperate? Do you know that in the last two years Congress hasn’t made anything like adequate provision for the building of hospitals for these disabled? Do you know that this condition is causing suffering and mis- ery—and death? Do your Senator and Congressman know it? Snap Shots T seems more than likely that Gabriele d’Annunzio’s poetical recitals have been mistaken for seismic disturbances reported from various points. A man may travel all over the world in search of happiness, nor realize that it is generally homemade. Put the best foot forward—but don’t confuse the brake with The 2000th Number (Coming March 3rd.) 'HE two-thousandth number of Lire! Can it be? That sounds very aged—almost like B.C.! But if reckoned by years it seems not long ago When the doughty young fellow rode up, all ag And entered life’s tournament, lance laid at rest, With a quip for the gay, for the gloomy a jest; No mercy for shams, whether many or few, But a knightly support for the honest and true, And a word, now and then, for the helpless, so nigh To pathos that, reading, we laugh—till we cry. Sometimes, it is possible, Lire makes mistakes; His steed, in the spirited charges he makes, May jostle a sensitive man or a woman— 'Tis human to err, and Lire’s naught if not human— But of this I am sure: if the buffet seems necdless, The horse and his rider a little bit hecdless, The issues of Lire furnish balm for the smart, For, as Solomon tells us, they come from the heart. So, blessings on Lire! May his line never cease, But a grand circulation his vigor increase! May his own life be more than a century long, Successful, undaunted, and still “ going strong Bringing sunshine to thousands, a smile to the sad, Good cheer to the toiler, a scowl from the bad; So giving his verified motto full scope, In season and out: “While there’s Lire, there is hope.” lis Boyd Allen, Houscowner: BUT WHY SHOULD YOU CHARGE SO MUCH MORE FOR BUILDING AN IGLOO THAN YOU USED Tv? Builder: ON ACCOUNT OF THE SHORTAGE OF ICE. comicbooks.com